A Sunday of great assurance

(An excerpt from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, January 30, 2022 during the live streamed mass of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, National Bible Sunday and Pro-Life Sunday at San Pedro Cathedral Parish, San Pedro Street, Davao City)

How do we fuse the two, its Pro-Life Sunday and also a National Bible Sunday, Life and then the word of God? It’s easy we cannot be pro-life without being guided by the word of God. The word of God is Life so the two are very connected. And also you cannot be a good reader, you cannot be in love with the scriptures without becoming pro-life. So, this two are very connected.

This Sunday being the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time we have the first reading from the book of Jeremiah, Old Testament and then we have the second reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians and then the Gospel reading from St. Luke. Now, I was thinking what could be a good on my own refelction, I was challenged to summarize, and it can be summarized in different ways. But if you ask me how can I summarize the three readings today offered to us, the living word of God to us this Sunday? I would humbly say that this Sunday is a Sunday of great assurance, a Sunday of great pasalig, gipasaligan kita, a Sunday of great comfort, a Sunday of great encouragement. Because even if we smile, we are quite okay but this days are still very difficult mainly because of the pandemic and many other things.

We are also in difficult days coming from the meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference that we did last week. One, very subtle but also very disturbing, we are really disturbed. And perhaps if you don’t, you better listen to what I say, we are very in a subtle ways feed with fake news. It is a blessing sa technology of cellphones nga advanced kaayo but there through social media we are fed with sometimes evil news, fake news. Therefore sa heart, soul and mind kung dili ta magbantay malnourished, we are eating the wrong food. We come to this worship, nanimba kita again we should trust that we will be comforted, we will be encouraged, we will be assured by the Lord.

The first reading read to us, proclaim to us this Sunday so that ang tuyo nga makabantay ta that in the history of humankind God has been reaching out to us, assuring us, comforting us, gapasalig ang Diyos. So, Jeremiah says as an example, the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you. You are special to me Jeremiah and we are special to God, to the Lord, a Sunday of great assurance. In the end sa reading, they will fight against you, kita nga more or less mosimba, Catholics, biay-biayon ta, daghang mga yawyaw. But they will fight against you but not prevail over you, Sunday of great assurance. For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord, Jeremiah stay firmed. And we know very well that Jeremiah as a prophet suffered so much, grabe siya’g pagmahay sa Ginoo, nagpahungaw siya sa Ginoo, grabe iyang gisulti sa Ginoo, nganu man ni? But in the end, this wonderful example of a person who kept his faith in the Lord prevailed, so Sunday of great assurance.

When we hear “good teachings”, when we hear teachings from the Church, naningkamot intawon, nag-meeting kaming mga Obispo recently akong pangutana maka-stress. Kay ang pangutana challenge sa mga Bishops and priests during these days. We will not back-out, we will continue to proclaim the Good News of the Lord. But extremely difficult and we have this words of comfort of the prophet Jeremiah. Ang dakung pangutana always, do we need this comfort? Do we need this assurance? Mao pud na kay basig ang giingon naku nga Sunday with assurance moingon pud ta wala man mi mabalaka uy. I think it is my role also to tell us daghan ta’g kabalak-an, I pointed out to you just one kabalaka naay poverty, naay calamities but one kabalaka lang, very subtle, hinay-hinay we are fed with fake news. And that is true even one side, one dimension of fake news is about Covid-19, fake news about vaccines certainly fake news but daghan ta’g kabalak-an. But if we lend our ears, open our hearts to what mother Church teaches us bisan lisod maningkamot ta to understand what the Church tells us. I would say I am far from good in explaining the Good News, the Gospel, the teaching of Mother Church. But we have this assurance today, just stay foot, stay firm, be strong in your faith and our enemies will not prevail.